Sermon Tone Analysis

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Anger
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Fresh Faith Review
We are looking at building up our faith.
Of you as an individual
And of us as a corporate body - the church
Why?
Because the enemy is out to devour who he may
He does that through the destruction of our faith.
But he can’t rob from us, or kill things in us or even destroy us if our faith is founded in the right God.
I say the right God because not all christians know the God whom they say they have faith in
They don’t know his character
They don’t know his word
And so they don’t know how to exercise the faith that they think they have.
WE said that faith is the tool that God uses in our lives to defeat the attacks of the enemy.
We need to have faith in the God whom:
can restore all things - to the point that it’s as if they never happened.
who can make us forget all of our troubles
Who will make us fruitful in the very place where we are suffering
Having that faith means that we are constantly seeking out and learning who God is, what he has promised and how those promises effect our lives.
It means that we are allowing God access to the inner depths of our lives so that he can cut out the wrong things and establish a powerful base for us to stand on
It means that we have placed him as the center of our lives - that he truly is our Lord, Savior and King
Having faith in this God also means that we will give him the room to move in and beyond our time restraints
That we will not allow our hurts in life and the discouragments of life to change our faith in God or change the God in whom we have faith.
If God said he will do it, then no matter what, he will do it.
We have to believe that he has a plan that will give him the highest praise from our lives
That he will give us the greatest testimony in our lives
And that he wants to use our lives to make us part of that intergenerational body of Christ - Seeing God in our past and especially our children
We have to be careful that we don’t allow life to get ahead of our faith, but that faith will always dictate our lives
We need to wait on the truth - God is greater than all of our sin and brokenness
We need to wait on the power and process of his salvation
And we need to trust in his grace - God is not finished with us yet.
And then last week we said that if we are to have strong faith, we just need to start stepping out in it.
If God has made us promises, and if we believe those promises than we need to walk in those promises
We need to make God our source of everything
We need to see God as the loving God that he is
WE need to keep moving forward.
No setting up camp here
And we need to trust God that he will tell us when we’ve arrived.
What we want to look at this morning is
A Faith That Sees Internally
If you read chapter 11, you know that Pastor Cymbala says that this is where God really works
I think his exact words were, “The greatest things That God does are internal.”
Why is this important to our subject of faith?
Because most of what we tend to have faith in God for are for those external things.
That God would heal us
That God would protect us from harm
That God would be with our children or some other loved one.
And if this is where our faith is focused, we can miss what God is really up to.
We may even be duped by the enemy into believing that God is not answering our prayers or that God just doesn’t care about us.
We need a faith that sees the invisible hand of God at work in the deepest areas of our lives.
I’ve entitled this message, “The man on a Horse.”
And I want to look at a very familiar person in the scriptures today.
Turn with me to
I ask you a question today?
What was Saul’s (Paul’s) real problem?
Was it that he hated the church - it would seem that way.
Was it that his religious beliefs were being called into question - it would seem that way
Was it that he had something to prove to this new church of new believers?
- It would seem that way
But when he converses with the Christ, it has nothing to do with any of those things.
In fact, those things were direct effects of what the real problem was.
Saul’s problem was internal - He was fighting against this savior of the world and son of God - Jesus the Christ.
And it would seem from Jesus’ words here that Paul was in direct conflict of what Jesus was trying to accomplish in his life.
kicking against the goads -
goads = a prod
It would seem that the Holy Spirit had already begun to work on Saul’s heart, but that he was fighting against it.
he was resistant to what the Holy Spirit was doing within him.
And so it is this internal battle that causes this man, Saul, to get on a horse and head to Damascus to hurt the people whom Jesus loves.
What was Saul’s Fix???
Jesus could not give him a love for his church without first having a love for the one who died for and empowered the church.
Jesus could not make him see the light of THE WAY until he first became blinded to his way
Jesus couldn’t make him stop persecuting the followers of the Way until he first understood the importance of walking in THE WAY
Jesus Needed to Give Saul a New Heart
Saul had a battle heart.
A heart that loved the old, was committed to and fighting for the old.
It wasn’t a changed heart that he needed, but a heart change.
It seems that this happens almost immediately for look what Saul says in verse 6 - “Lord, what do you want me to do?
This was not something that we would have ever heard Saul say to Jesus before.
We know from OSL that the Word there for Lord that Saul uses is translated Master, ruler, controller.
So this was a huge statement for Saul
There was a recognition there, in this moment, that though he may not understand all of this, this Jesus was not someone to take lightly
Up to this point, Sauls devotion and passion for life was destroying this Jesus
Now he is saying, what do you want me to do?
It is part surrender
It is part questioning - How do I change?
How does this work in my life?
Lord you know who I am, what happens now?
It may even be part of the fight - the questioning.
Right, so what do I do with that?
No matter what, it shows a heart change that is taking place in Saul.
Church, this is key to our faith today.
God wants to give us a new heart.
That heart of stone is the heart that is immovable.
It is totally rebellious
It is set on it’s own way
It is unable to believe in the things of God.
And God says to his people that he is changing that.
He has so much more for them to know and live in, but the hardened heart is in his way
And so he is going to give them a heart that he can move upon and that can move and feel for Him.
This is what had to happen to Saul, and it is what has to happen to you and I as well.
So have faith in a God who is at work in the deeper things of your life.
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